Recent Events (March 2000) |
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On March 12, 2000, we hosted Israeli singer Boaz Sharabi for a heart warming concert in the Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto.
The evening opened with Shimon Rojani who lost his son, Yoni, in the TWA flight 800 crash, telling the audience about his personal decision to memorize Yoni by giving away. A warm home in Nof-Yam is now named after Yoni. Shimon thanked the audience for coming and called Vered Ravid to the stage.
Vered, who volunteers as the Yad BeYad's representative in Silicon Valley told the audience about Yad BeYad, and Bait Ham. She called for a commitment from us who are lucky to be living in this area of great prosperity during especially fortunate times, to give a hand to those in need.
Boaz Sharabi took the stage with three talented young musicians on the synthesizer, percussion and bass, and gave us all his great hits from "Tni li Yad" and "Etzli Hakol Beseder", to "Pamela" with the real story behind that song (it wasn't his crush on the Parisian beauty Pamela, but of a friend of his). The band went through all the beautiful melodies with the audience joining in for many of them. Boaz, who was raised in a poor home with 5 brothers and 5 sisters himself, surprised us in mid performance when he invited his younger brother, Yoel to replace him on stage. Yoel, as it turned out, is a pretty talented musician in his own right. He gave us an impressive Spanish Flamenco ``Malagueña Salerosa'' culminating in a duet with Boaz of ``Chayecha veChayay'' which was written by Boaz about his younger brother (Hakshev Achi Sheli HaKat Hakshev... for those who know the lyrics).
After the performance, Yoel told me that this was a very special and warm audience. And that the coincidence of us adopting the home in Kerem HaTemanim, the poor neighborhood in which they grew up was very touching to them.
With about 600 people in the audience, many of whom generously donating additional sums after the performance ended, and with most of the performance proceeds going to Yad BeYad, we were able to collect $18,000 in this single event. This is over a third of the money needed towards our yearly goal of $50,000. $15,000 were sent to Israel for the Warm Home in Kerem Hatemanim, the remaining $3000 were sent to the Yoni Rojani warm home in Nof-Yam, near the coastal city of Hertzlia. A sign recognizing the Israeli Community in Silicon Valley will be installed in the warm home in Kerem HaTemanim in South Tel-Aviv. This warm home is from now on ours to take care of. It is a responsibility we can be proud of.
We thank everyone who joined us that evening and those who donated additional money. We hope to see you again in similar events in the future.
-- Ariel. F.
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